Who sent out Paul and Barnabas on the first missionary journey? You might say that it was the church in Antioch. But to be precise, the correct answer is the Holy Spirit: “So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit . . . ” (Acts 13:4a). However, Acts 13:3 says the church “sent them off,” but that does not mean the church was ultimately responsible for commissioning and sending out these two. New Testament scholar David G. Peterson explains.
[T]he verb translated sent them off (apelysan) has the sense of ‘release’, ‘dismiss’, or ‘send away’ (e.g., 3:13; 4:21; 5:40; 15:30, 33), not ‘appoint.’[1]
Paul and Barnabas were “sent out” by the Spirit and “released” by the church from their present ministry in Antioch to a new realm of service far beyond that city. This somewhat technical detail is significant because it reveals the Lord’s heart for the missionary enterprise.
Additionally, Acts 13:2 tells of the Holy Spirit spurring the first missionary journey: “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’” The Holy Spirit was at least speaking to the five “prophets and teachers” mentioned in verse 1 (the nearest antecedent of “they” in verse 2). Perhaps the Spirit spoke through one of the prophets when he communicated his plans for Barnabas and Saul (i.e., Paul, v. 9).
Missions is the Lord’s idea. Over a decade before this commissioning, when Paul was converted, the Lord used a believer from Damascus named Ananias to minister to Paul. Ananias was reluctant because of Paul’s wickedness toward Christians in the past (Acts 9:13-14), “But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel’” (9:15). What occurred in Acts 13 was something that the Lord had planned long ago, and now the Holy Spirit was actively moving Paul (with Barnabas) to his apostolic calling to take the name of Jesus to the nations out of a local church.
What about the church?
Even though the Holy Spirit is the instigator and director of the work of missions, the church is not passive. Consider how Acts 13 begins, “Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.” The diversity of these men is evident: Barnabas was a Levite from the island of Cyprus (4:36); “Simeon who was called Niger” was a black man (his nickname meant “black”) probably from Africa; Lucius was from Cyrene located on the northern coast of Africa; Manaen was a “lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch,” that is, Herod Antipas, who was the king in Galilee during the time of Jesus’ ministry (cf. Matthew 14:1; Luke 3:1; 23:8); Saul was a former Pharisee from Tarsus in Cilicia. This was a team of leaders that understood the gospel was for people of all ethnicities and cultures, Jews and Gentiles.
The people in the church were also primed to engage in getting the gospel to the world. Antioch, the capital of Syria, was about 300 miles north of Jerusalem (not to be confused with Pisidian Antioch, 13:14f). It was the third largest city in the Roman Empire with possibly 250,000 people, approximately 90% Gentiles.[2] Into this mostly pagan city came persecuted believers from Jerusalem (cf. Acts 8:1b; 11:19). They shared the good news, and because “the hand of the Lord was with them,” people were converted and a church began (cf. 11:19-21).
It was such a remarkable occurrence for so many Gentiles in Antioch to believe in Jesus that when the church in Jerusalem heard, they sent Barnabas to confirm it (11:22). Barnabas then traveled about 150 miles to Tarsus and found Paul and brought him back to minister with him in Antioch (11:26). Paul’s calling as apostle to the Gentiles, and his probable previous experience ministering to Gentiles, no doubt motivated Barnabas to persuade Paul to join him.
It is not a surprise that out of a church with this composition the Holy Spirit sent men to take the gospel to the nations. The believers in Antioch knew by experience that the gospel was for Jews and Gentiles, and Barnabas and Paul were uniquely prepared to go, especially after spending a year teaching in Antioch (11:26b) and serving among such a diverse team of leaders (13:1).
Ready to be Sent
We should not only appreciate the wisdom of the Lord in using the church in Antioch to get the gospel “to the end of the earth,” but we should learn from that church’s example. The Antioch church actively cooperated with the Holy Spirit in the work of missions in at least two ways.
First, the church in Antioch had men who were ready to be sent by the Holy Spirit.
The five “prophets and teachers” were “worshiping the Lord and fasting” (vv. 1-2). The word for “worshipping” is probably better translated “serving,” indicating that “they” (the five prophets and teachers) were serving by using their gifts, and at the same time they were fasting, expecting the Lord’s blessing in some way. They were doing what the Lord wanted them to do, and ready to do whatever else the Lord desired. That is the setting for when the Holy Spirit commanded, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (v. 2).
What is often not considered when reading Acts is that the book spans about thirty years, even though all twenty-eight chapters can be read in less than three hours. It is easy to read multiple chapters and think it is only covering a few weeks or months, when sometimes it is surveying several years.
In the case of Paul, even though the first account of his conversion is in Acts 9, the events of Acts 13-14 took place over thirteen years after his conversion. Those intervening years were full of both ministry and learning so that by the time he was sent out, he was a mature and capable leader. And Barnabas was already a believer and ministering before Paul’s conversion (cf. Acts 4:36-37; 9:27), so he also was seasoned and significantly prepared for the ministry ahead. As mentioned above, these men had spent a year together serving in Antioch, and just prior to the Spirit’s commissioning in Acts 13, the two men had traveled together to Jerusalem bearing a financial gift for the Jerusalem church in their time of need due to a famine (11:27-30; 12:25). These capable, trustworthy men were the Antioch church’s first missionaries.
This does not intimate that only men who have impressive resumés should be sent to the mission field. There are various roles that can be filled on a missionary’s team. But when a church is participating with the Holy Spirit in sending out a man to proclaim the gospel and plant churches, he must be a knowledgable, gifted, courageous, self-directed man who is above reproach.
Where do these kinds of men come from? Certain gifted men might come into the life of a church for a season, similar to Paul and Barnabas, and then be released to the mission. However, it will more likely be necessary to develop men in the church. How does this happen?
Experiencing a healthy church
Fundamentally, future missionaries need to experience healthy church life. A “missions-minded” church should see the value of having vibrant body life because this is what the Lord wants to reproduce around the globe. It is difficult to “plant” what you have not first experienced. All believers should feel responsible to give future missionaries the kind of church life that will help them to start gospel-embracing, flourishing churches.
Receiving training by an elder[3]
Elders (pastors) in a church also have a strategic role in developing future missionaries. They can do this by first training all of the men in the church, and then pouring into some more than others with the aim of developing their skills and gifts for ministry. In our church, each elder meets with a group (or groups) of men (covering all of the men) typically once a week primarily to study passages and books of the Bible and to stimulate application of what is studied. The fruit of this weekly learning is mature men.
Pastors must also give men opportunities to serve, including in the areas of teaching and leading. How else will they be able to discern if a man is gifted in those ways that are required to be a missionary?
Serving as an elder first?
Finally, it’s possible, and maybe preferable, for a man to first serve as an elder in a church before he departs for the mission field. Shepherding a flock with a team of pastors, regularly dealing with weighty matters, will equip him for missionary work. And if a man is going to appoint elders (Acts 14:23), it will be advantageous for him to have been an elder previously. Even serving as an assistant to an elder provides remarkable benefits for a future missionary.
We love you!
Second, the church in Antioch released their missionaries in a way that said, “We love you and are with you!”
“Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off” (Acts 13:3). As in verse 2, is “they” referring to only the three remaining among the prophets and teachers, or the whole church? Even if it is a reference to only the three, they represented the whole church who, when Paul and Barnabas returned, were all present and ready to hear the missionaries’ report (14:27).
These co-workers of Paul and Barnabas set aside food once again (cf. v. 2a) to seek the Lord and pray for these brothers, entrusting them to the Lord before they headed into difficult territory. And then they “laid their hands on them” (v. 3) as if to say, “We are with you, we are for you, and we love you.”
At some point, we will know that it is God’s will to send a man. Having prayed and trained and considered God’s providential workings, and after assessing opportunities and evaluating a man’s readiness (including his family, if married), a missionary prospect will be prayerfully “released.” Suddenly, he and his beautiful family will be off to another part of the globe. It can be extremely difficult to lose these men (and their families) who were so useful in the church. But the kind of men the church should release are those who will be missed the most.
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*This article is an excerpt from Steve Burchett, Released: Inspiration from the First Local Church Venture into Worldwide Missions, pp. 25-31. To read a PDF or to order a free copy (you only pay shipping), click here.
[1] The Acts of the Apostles (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2009), 377.
[2] Eckhard J. Schnabel, Paul the Missionary: Realities, Strategies and Methods (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 70, Kindle.
[3] In the New Testament, “elders,” “pastors” (shepherds), and “overseers” refer to the same male leaders in a church (cf. Acts 20:17, 28; Ephesians 4:11).